By Udeme Akpan
China Chengxin International Credit Rating Co., Ltd. (CCXI) has affirmed African Export-Import Bank’s (Afreximbank) AAA issuer credit rating with a Stable outlook for the second consecutive year, underscoring the Bank’s financial strength and strategic importance.
In its 2026 Credit Rating Report for the Bank, released in Beijing on 30 July, CCXI said it expects the Bank’s credit rating to remain stable in the next 12 to 18 months.
The report affirmed Afreximbank’s “advantages, including high strategic positioning, sound risk management system, flexible business development, strong profitability, prudent liquidity management and a very high coverage ratio of current assets to short-term debts,” saying that these strengths “strongly supported the overall credit strength of the Bank”.
Commenting on the rating, Mr. Chandi Mwenebungu, Managing Director, Treasury & Markets and Treasurer said: “CCXI’s affirmation of our AAA rating for a second consecutive year is a strong endorsement of Afreximbank’s financial strength, disciplined risk management and enduring relevance to Africa and Global Africa. It demonstrates our ability to deliver on our mandate, support our member states through periods of uncertainty and mobilise capital from the breadth and depth of diverse funding pools across local and global markets, while maintaining the financial resilience and institutional strength expected of a leading multilateral development bank.”
The rating also reinforces Afreximbank’s access to diversified funding sources, particularly in China, while enhancing the Bank’s growing footprint, profile and market presence in one of the world’s largest and most important capital markets.
In 2025, the Bank issued its inaugural RMB2.2 billion Panda bond, becoming the first Afri-can multilateral development institution to access the Panda bond market, and sub-sequently became a direct participant in China’s Cross-border Interbank Payment System (CIPS), further strengthening its role in facilitating China-Africa trade and investment flows and partnerships.
The CCXI affirmation follows S&P Global Ratings’ assignment earlier this year of ‘BBB+’ long-term and ‘A-2’ short-term issuer credit ratings to Afreximbank, with a Stable outlook. Afreximbank also holds investment-grade ratings from GCR (A), Ja-pan Credit Rating Agency (JCR) (A-) and Moody’s (Baa2).
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